Electropneumatic apparatus.



K. W. THALHAMMER.

ELECTROPNEUMATIC APPARATUS,

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 8.1911.

LMWQW. Patent-edse fllz, 1916.

TTNTTE AT J -T FT@E.

KARL W. TI-IALI-IAMMER, DE LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

ELECTROPNEUIVIATIC APPARATUS.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, KARL W. TI-IALI-IAM- Mun, a subject of Austria, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented a new and useful Electropneumatic Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to electro-pneumatic controlling mechanism more particularly of the class adapted to photo-camera shutters and analogous devices, and its objects are the provision of a means for convenient control and manipulation of such devices from more or less distant points, and with means for the control and operation of such devices with a minimum expenditure of power.

Other objects are the control and manipulation of such devices without jar or vibration, and their effectual operation whereby exposures may be accurately timed and made by manipulations analogous to the usual bulb operations, including instantaneous and time exposures.

The invention resides more particularly in a novel construction of pneumatic valve and electromechanism for its control which may be applied in certain conditions requiring automatic control of varying fluid pres sures, to various forms of cameras, including cameras operated by a lever, push-button or the like, or already equipped with a pneumatic shutter, to various mechanical devices requiring application and release of power, to mechanical devices where a comparatively limited reciprocating or oscillating movement is required, and to apparatus requiring an operating lever to be moved quickly in a reverse direction.

To meet the foregoing requirements in a device comprising a barrel, a plunger in the barrel, a tank connected to the plunger barrel, said tank having an outlet, and a valve normally closing the outlet, I employ electromagnetically operated means to open the valve for a governable period of time, and means to instantly permit relief of air pressure against the plunger upon closure of the valve.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention.

Figure 1 is a sectional elevation on line 02 Fig. 2, of one form of the invention as applied to actuate the shutter-operating lever of a camera, of which a fragment is shown. Fragments of an ordinary pocket flashlight battery are shown partly in sec- Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Sept. 12, 191 3.

Application filed. June 8, 1911.

Serial No. 632,077.

tion and connected to the terminal plug by an electric line which is broken to contract the view. Fig. 2 is a sectional plan on irregular line indicated by m -w Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional elevation on line 00 Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a reduced sectional elevation on line m Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 5 is a reduced cross section on line indicated by m Fig. 1, of the air compressor in Fig. 1; the air-tank being shown in normal contracted form in full lines, and distended in dotted lines. Arrows on the section lines in the several views indicate the direction of sight.

The mechanism to be controlled by this apparatus may perform any desired work and in the drawings such mechanism is a lever 1 operating a shutter a of a camera 2 which is provided with the usual lens 3 and shutter timer 4.

The lever 1 may be connected as by a pin 5 to a suitable pneumatic device which in the drawings consists of an ordinary shutter-operating plunger 6 that works in the usual barrel 7 which may be fastened to the front of the camera by the ordinary means, not shown, and it is understood that in case the camera is not provided with the lever 1, plunger 6 and barrel 7, such a device or one similar thereto may be employed as a part of this apparatus to operate the shutter a.

The lever 1 and plunger 6 are operated by a motor, and in the form shown in the drawings the barrel 7 is connected preferably at its lower end by a flexible tube 8 and a threaded nipple 9 to an exhaust port 10 in the side of a chambered body which may be externally rectangular as at 11 in Figs. 1 and 2 or it may be partly cylindrical. In said body the exhaust port 10 opens into the. cylinder bore 12 which has a reduced relief port or vent 13 axially opposite to the exhaust port 10 and which also communicates through a reduced intake port 14 with one end of an axial valve chamber 15 that is closed at its other end by a threaded nipple 16 as in Fig. 1. The valve chamber 15 is provided with a cup-shaped and prefer-ably soft rubber packed valve plug 17, that normally closes the intake port 14 and is actuated to close said port by a helical expansion spring 18 extending between the valve plug and nipple or hollow plug 16, as the case may be, into all of which the spindle 19 of the valve plug extends to g de the val e pl g.

The cylinder bore 12 is provided with a shouldered piston or stopper 20 which may rest against and is normally close to one end of the valve spindle 19 and allows the exhaust port 10 to remain open and normally closes the relief port 13. Said piston 20 is threaded into or otherwise fastened to an armature 21 as in Fig. 1, that is held in proper alinement by a guide pin 22 or the like which passes through the armature and is fixed in the end of'the body 11. The armature 21 is actuated by an electro-magnet of any desired construction consisting of cylindrical spools 24 as in Figs. 1 to 4, and said spools are preferably arranged in pairs there being one spool on either side of and close to the body 11. The electro-magnet spools 24, may be energized by electric current from any desired source.

In the drawings the spools 24, are fastened to an angular bracket 25 as in Fig. 1 or 25 which is secured to the spool cores 26 by pins 27 that may be integral with the spool cores and are riveted or headed over the bracket 25 which supports and is insulated from a pair of socketed terminals 28.

The socketed terminals 28, are adapted to receive terminal. plugs 29 insulated from one another and connected by an electric line 30 to a battery of any desired type, such as the ordinary pocket flash-light battery 31. The spools 24 are connected together by the lead 6 and are each connected by the lead cl and a lead f to terminals 28 and 28 respectively.

Compressed air may be admitted to the valve chamber 15 through the nipple 16 from any source of supply which in the drawings is an air-tank that may be in the form of a bulb 38 preferably of rubber and connected by a hose 39 to the nipple.

Means are provided to pump air into the air-tank and such means may be hand-operated. In the form shown in Fig. 1 the bulb 38 is vulcanized at one end to an internallythreaded cylindrical bushing 41 adapted to.

receive a threaded nut 42 which is soldered or otherwise fastened to a pump barrel 43 j that is provided with a plunger and plungerrod 44, 45 of the usual description. The end of'the pump barrel 43 is provided with a port 48 which opens into a chambered valve box 49 provided wlth valve means analogous 1 to the valve plug, spring and spindle 17 In the form shown in Fig. 1 the cylinder 11,'electro-magnet spools 24 and armature 21 may be inclosed as by a rectangular case 51 which is closed at its upper end and which may be screwed or otherwise fastened 1 to the cylinder 11. The closed end of the case 51 may be provided with a perforation 66 to accommodate the extension 67 of the valve spindle 19, so that the valve plug 17, if desired, may be operated by hand.

In Figs. 1 to 4 the closed end. of the case 51 serves to limit the outward movement of the armature 21 away from the electromagnet.

In practice the motor is charged with compressed air by operating the plunger rod 45, one stroke being suflicient to operate on. Then considering the apparatus as being used with a camera, it is operated by closing the switch in electric line 30, thereby attracting the armature 21 to the energized electro-magnet and opening the valve to admit compressed air from the air-tank to the barrel 7 behind the plunger 6 which then operates the lever 1 to open the shutter a, and make an exposure in the usual manner. The valve and consequently the camera shutter will remain open so long as the eleetro-magnet is energized and when the electro-magnet is deenergized by opening the switch the piston 20 will be forced outward by the air pressure behind it to open the relief port 13, thus permitting the plunger 6 to instantly return to its normal position as in Fig. 1. It is thus seen that an instantaneous exposure may be made by simply closing the switch when the shutter a has been set for instantaneous; and that any requisite length of exposure may be made by allowing the desired interval to elapse between two successive closings of the switch when the shutter has been set for time; and also that what is known in the photographic art as a bulb exposure may be made by allowing the desired interval to elapse between the closing and opening of the switch when the shutter has been set for bulb.

1. In an electro-pneumatic apparatus, valve means, and a piston operatable in one direction by a closed electric circuit to open the valve means,said piston being operatable in the reverse direction by compressed air upon closure of the valve means.

2. A valve device comprising a cylinder having a bore and a relief port, a valve to admit compressed air from a source of supply through the cylinder bore when the relief port is closed, and an electrically-operated piston to operate the valve, said piston being pneumatically operated to open the relief port upon closure of the valve.

3. An electrically operated fluid valve comprising means forming a vent and an inlet port, a valve to close said port, a piston normally closing the vent and adapted to operate the val e to open the port, and electrically operated means to move the piston in one direction to open the port and allow the entrance of compressed fluid, said piston thereafter being operated in the opposite direction by the admitted fluid to open the vent.

4. An electrically operated fluid valve, comprising means forming a vent and an inlet port, a valve normally closing said inlet port and having a spindle, a piston restmy hand at Los Angeles, California, this ing loosely against the free end of the'valve 3d day of June, 1911.

spindle and positioned to close the vent when KARL W. THALHAMMER. the valve is seated on the inlet port, and In presence of means to move the piston to unseat the J AMES R. TOWNSEND, valve. GEORGE H. HILEs, In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set L. BELLE RICE.

Gopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

Corrections in Letters Patent No. 1,197,969.

It is hereby certified that in Letters Patent No. 1,197,969, granted September 12, 1916, upon the application of Karl W. Thalhammer, of Los Ahgeles, California,

for an improvement in Electropneumatic Apparatus, errors appear in the printed specification requiring correction as follows: Page 2, lines 2122, strike out the Words, abbreviation, and numerals as in Fig. 1 or 25 same page, line 31, afterthe reference-numeral 31 insert the words and reference-numeral heating a switch button 32; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with these correctionstherein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signedand sealed this 21st day of November, A. D., 1916.

F. W. H. CLAY, Acting Commissioner of Patents.

[sEAL.] 

